In “Art Can Save a Panda” Dr. Lucy Spelman makes the case for bringing artists and scientists together to foster sustained and informed public support for animal conservation. The need for a new, more collaborative and creative approach to saving animal species is urgent. We live together in an increasingly urban world, disconnected from nature, unaware that wild animals are rapidly going extinct and that our health depends on their health. Using examples, including work by her students at the Rhode Island School of Design, she shows it is possible to reconnect the arts and sciences to make the problems facing the animal kingdom, as well as the solutions, more accessible, meaningful, and relevant.

The images in the gallery below are student work from an assignment on salt marsh ecosystem services for "Visualizing the Natural Sciences," the class Dr. Spelman co-teaches with RISD Illustrator Nick Jainschigg.